Those who habitually go outdoors at night to watch the stars and planets, etc. find these events interesting. Some things such as glare from light pollution are annoying when they wash out these events so we have to go to the Internet to find out what is right there visible to normal eyesight in a decent night sky. Who here has seen this comet for themselves?
Easily visible in binoculars from a not-dark-enough site (a back yard in a small city). And I didn’t take enough time for good dark adaptation. Holmes is not as bright as Hale-Bopp or Hyukatake but still spectacular.
I love looking into the night sky and watching the stars, trying to look for formations.
What I DON’T like, is thinking about a massive solar flare, gamma burst, or meteor plowing into Earth.
I've seen it pretty much every clear night. Both through binocuars, my 14" telescope and some pictures my astronomy buddies are taking.
One thing I'm learning about comets is that they all have their special "personalities."
Holmes is basically round and about the size of the Moon/Sun in angular diameter. About 1/2 degree across. Not much tail at all.
Hale-Bopp had that awesome split tail, and had visible spiral patterns when viewed at high power through my telescope, caused by large jets of gas on a spinning body. It reminded me of M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy). Hale-Bopp is the only large comet I've seen where it was just as interesting through the telescope as it was naked eye or through binoculars.
Hyakutake had a tail that spanned about 75 or 80 degrees across the sky. I pulled an all-nighter on a work night to drive up to Mt. Pinos, getting there at about 3:00am and staying until 4:20am. That was on whichever night it was projected to be the best view. There was a sheet of ice on everything, and it was bitter cold, but I got to see a comet tail that spanned nearly half of the sky. The nucleus was near Polaris and the end of the tail was near the celestial equator. A good description for my astronomically inclined FRiends would be that Hyakutake looked similar to how the Veil Nebula looks through a BIG scope with an O-3 filter on a 31mm Nagler eyepiece.
Truly something I'll never forget. Though I don't remember much about working the next day. :)
I have.
“Who here has seen this comet for themselves?”
I get a great view of it from binoculars and telescope here in Longmont, Colorado. Not much light pollution and I’m at 5000’. I go out every night it’s clear and spend at least an hour looking at the stars.